Lots of colour at the nursery

Caths Garden Plants is looking very colourful at the moment as lots of the later summer flowering plants are looking good as well as the plants that flower over an extremely long period like the Agastaches.  It is also wonderful to see the butterflies and other insects enjoying all the choices available to them at the moment.  Bob discovered a long wasp-like insect with an extremely vicious looking pointed rear end last weekend.  Kate had also seen one a few days earlier.  Research enlightened us that it was a greater wood wasp and that the vicious looking rear end was used for boring into wood not humans!

The nursery is also rather noisy at times, although it is an acceptable noise, from all the young wrens scurrying around.  They never fail to take me back to my childhood and my grandad showing my first wren in his greenhouse when I was about five years old.

There are four Agastaches flowering at present from the taller 'Black Adder' with its purple flowers and shorter bushier 'Tangerine Dream'(shown right), and the newer varieties of 'Raspberry Summer' and 'Tutti Frutti' with raspberry-pink and cerise-pink flowers respectively.  All day long they are alive with insects.  Stokesias in white, cream and purple-blue are also looking good.  Coreopsis 'Moonbeam', and 'Creme Brulee' in differing shades of yellow are long flowering plants ideal for the border or containers. Scabiosa 'Miss Wilmott' a taller white flowered variety for the border or Scabiosa  'Moondance' a lovely shorter grower ideal for containers, raised beds or rockeries.  The Crocosmias are making a bright showing especially when contrasted with the blue of the Agapanthus nearby.  For something a little more unusual we have Gladiolus papilio 'Ruby' with  rich ruby-red flowers(shown left).  All these plants like sun and well-drained soil.

If your soil is heavier then Rudbeckias and Heleniums are excellent plants.  Helenium 'Mardi Gras' is a newer variety with bi-coloured flowers of red and yellow or 'Red Jewel' if you prefer a variety for your hot border.  Rudbeckia triloba is a taller grower, ideal for the back of a border with lots of small golden flowers with brown centres. Leave its flowerheads on for the birds or to let it gently self-seed and naturalis. Rudbeckias 'Goldsturm' and deamii are stalwarts for the late summer and autumn giving weeks of colour and interest.  All these plants will grow in sun or part-shade.

If you are more interested in shrubs then Perovskia 'Blue Spire' is looking very attractive with its purple flower spikes and aromatic foliage for sun and well-drained soil.  The Hydrangea paniculata varieties are also looking good with their long pyramidal flowerheads of whites fading to pink which eventually skeletonize and can be used in Christmas decorations, are ideal shrubs for a moist soil in shade.  Caryopteris with bright blue flowers and light green aromatic foliage attracts insects and is ideal for a sunny, well-drained border.